As president of the United Farm Workers of America, Arturo S. Rodriguez is continuing to build the union Cesar Chavez founded into a powerful voice for immigrant workers by increasing its membership and pushing historic legislation on immigration reform and worker rights.

Rodriguez is leading the UFW in bringing about meaningful change for farm workers by making it easier for them to organize and negotiate union contracts. He seeks to fundamentally transform American agriculture by creating jobs offering workers decent pay, comprehensive health coverage, retirement security, protections against toxic poisons, job security and guarantees against discrimination and sexual harassment. Under Rodriguez, the UFW is working to offer innovative alternative representation through benefits and services, and to extend innovative representation to workers temporarily brought to work in U.S. agriculture. His goal is also preserving America’s food supply through a strong and viable agricultural industry.

Rodriguez and his wife Sonia live near the UFW’s headquarters at Keene, in California’s Tehachapi Mountains.

El Teatro Campesino

Founded in 1965 by American playwright Luis Valdez as a means of organizing the nation’s agricultural workers through art and culture, El Teatro Campesino - literally “the Farm Workers’ theater” - has been at the forefront of using theater as an artistic generator of social change for five decades. ETC’s seminal work has impacted and influenced several artists and cultural institutions in developing an acting technique, aesthetic, and narrative of Latinos’ pursuit of social justice in the United States and internationally. From flat bed trucks to the Broadway stage, this multigenerational company has worked to empower Chicano/Latino artists and communities from its home in San Juan Bautista, California since 1971.

The Western Forum offers diverse learning opportunities for Community and Migrant Health Center staff and related health and health care professionals. The 2017 Western Forum featured over 35 breakout sessions on a multitude of topics, including:

Addressing and Mitigating Trauma and Violence: Responding to depression and trauma among agricultural workers, improving health outcomes through violence prevention, and community-based approaches to address workplace sexual harassment and violence in agriculture.

Agricultural Worker Updates and Trends in a Shifting Environment: The Affordable Care Act and its impact on agricultural workers, strategies for effective outreach to migrant seasonal agricultural workers, and connecting H-2A workers to health insurance and health care.

Organizing and Mobilizing for Health Equity: The new environment for community and migrant health, strategies and tools to champion communities through advocacy, and methods for organizing for change.

Leadership and Professional Development: Growing the next generation of leadership, cultural competency, and customer service.

The Role of Clinicians: A Deeper Dive: Shared medical visits for Latinos with Type 2 diabetes, integrative health care focused on the whole person, ensuring continuity of care for migrants, and palliative care.

Methods and Models of Sustainable Outreach: Effective data collection and analysis for a responsive community health needs assessment, barriers to health care among indigenous immigrants from Mexico, patient-centered transportation solutions, and improving communication with limited English proficient populations during emergencies.

Social Determinants of Health, Immigration, and the Way Forward: Immigrant rights and what to expect in a new administration, agricultural workers’ social determinants of health, driving the message on immigrant health, and documenting health center interventions to address patients’ social determinants of health.

Fostering the Community Health Worker Workforce: The role of Promotores(as) De Salud to address mental health in Latino communities, practices and training development for community health workers (CHWs) in primary care, developing common CHW evaluation indicators, and perspectives on workforce development and the promotor model.

Tackling Zika: An interactive training for CHWs to prevent Zika in migrant workers.

Continuation of the Promise of Delivery: New protections to prevent pesticide exposure, and best practices in promoting pediatric oral health through dental sealants.

Exploring the Impact of Artistic, Creative Avenues: Digital storytelling and CHWs, and popular theater.

Showcasing CHW Effectiveness: CHW programs to address chronic illness, and opportunities for CHWs to leverage the SNAP program for training and expanded services.

To meet your marketing goals, consider a sponsorship from $500 to $10,000, with varied and negotiable benefits. Note that exhibit tables are tiered in price. We publish a professional printed program - a great place for advertising.

Sponsorships at various levels are critical to making NWRPCA conferences fiscally viable and also affordable to health centers. All sponsors are featured prominently in the conference program and signage and are also acknowledged in the annual Report to Stakeholders.

Conference exhibitors have a unique opportunity to interact and network with healthcare professionals from across the Northwest. Exhibit tables are available.

View the 2017 Western Forum Prospectus for Sponsors, Exhibitors, and Advertisers and contact Rosa Mitsumasu Scotti, NWRPCA's Development Specialist, at rmitsumasu@nwrpca.org or 206-519-5049 for more information.

CEU certificates are accessed online. Conference attendees will be sent an email after the conference with instructions on how to process your CEU online. You will be responsible for completing the process online and printing your certificate.

The specific 2017 Western Forum for Migrant and Community Health CEU will be announced.

Groups of four or more who register together at the regular conference rate of $300 will receive 10% off the total registration fee. Apply the following promotion code at checkout: 2017WFGroup. The discount will only apply to regular full conference registration. Please ensure you only use the discount code if you have four or more regular full conference attendees. Contact registration@nwrpca.org if you need assistance or more information.

The cancellation deadline is Wednesday, February 8, 2017. Cancellations must be in writing (email is fine). Tuition will be refunded less a $30 processing fee. Cancellations made after the deadline are not refundable.

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U58CS06846, "S/RPCAs," total award $950K, with 65 percent of program funded by nongovernmental sources. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.